Chicks!!!

The chicks started hatching on Thursday at lunchtime and went right through until Friday night. I was making lunch on Thursday when I thought I heard chriping then thought it came from outside until I realized the windows were closed! I looked into the incubator but didn't see anything happening so I thought I was hearing things and went back to lunch. While we were eating I told Maddie what I thought I heard and we heard it again! So we went over to the incubator and realized that we could hear them chirping at us! Then Maddie located a crack in one of the eggs. The excitment was immediate for everyone. All the children at the lunch table declared, in unison, that they were "DONE!" eating and wanted to get down. While looking at the one with a hole we realized that many, many of the eggs were wiggling. By Thursday evening we had 2 chicks hatched and more on the way.

The pictures came out very poorly while they were in the incubator. We finally gave up. I do have quite a few of Maddie though. She pulled a chair up and sat for hours watching the eggs. We ended up ordering a pizza for dinner and letting Maddie stay up to the unheard of bedtime of 9:30 pm. She was up the next morning and back at her perch at 5:45am when I got up to get things ready for day care.

After Brian got home on Friday we moved the chicks to a box with wood chips and heavy duty paper towels. Maddie was nervous about picking them up out of the incubator because she thought she would hurt them. Brian was the brave one and after he did one or two Maddie jumped in. I did a few but mostly I stood back and took pictures.

In this last picture Maddie is holding the beak of the chick in the water. This is to help the chick realize where the water is and that its for drinking. They were quite happy with their new apartment and, I think, happy to get out of the incubator which was getting on the cramped side. The final count was 24 happy healthy chicks.

As you can see Maddie now has a new perch and is enjoying the chicks very much. I love watching her watch them and talk to them and pet them and scold them when they try to peck each other or sit in the food. They are very interesting to watch and rather like puppies. They are suddenly all up and eating like crazy then they hop around a bit chriping when suddenly everyone crashes for a nap. Several have fallen asleep with their heads in the food dish. Tonight one was sitting on the top with his head through one of the open places in the food snoozing away. Only babies can sleep in such positions and apparently it doesn't matter if its human, dog or chicken!

This has been such a good lesson for Maddie for so many reasons. She has cared for these chicks as eggs and now as chicks! We had a big discussion about the eggs that didn't hatch and the 2 sick chicks who died. She has been keeping a journal about the whole experience for her 4H fair project. While I doubt highly this is a project I would attempt again it has been wonderful (mostly--remember the 2 who didn't make it!) and I would tell anyone to give it a try once. At the very least it will help you appreciate the nicely wrapped ready to go eggs and meat at the grocery store. We have to thank the Faulkner family for sharing their eggs and supplies with us. The whole project wouldn't have crossed our minds if they hadn't helped us along. Now....believe it or not....we will be watching caterpillars turn into butterflies soon!!!